Howard High School of Technology will serve as the laboratory in a three-year project studying ways to improve high school science instruction.

Starting in the fall, University of Delaware science graduate fellows will team with Howard science teachers to help high schoolers apply scientific principles to real-world problems. The teachers and nine graduate students will focus on "problem-based learning," which teaches science in a more relevant context and measures whether students can use their scientific knowledge in situations they might encounter in future jobs.

The partnership, announced Monday, is funded by a three-year, $1.7 million National Science Foundation grant awarded to UD and the New Castle County Vo-Tech School District.

"Our assessment is typically something that's pencil-and-paper," said Amy Quillen, science specialist for the district. "These kids will be posed with problems that ask them to use the information in a totally different way. If they can't do that, we know we did what we did?" he wonders.

Bythwood's students are building rockets, a project in which they are expected to apply tenets such as projectile motion and Newton's third law -- "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

One of the eight graduate fellows already selected is Anissa Brown, who is studying the cellular and molecular processes of cartilage formation.

Her goal is to head a program like UD's Nucleus Program, a networking group for minority students majoring in the sciences. Through her church, Brown tutors students in elementary school through high school.

"I believe in giving back," she said. "We need to encourage students that science can be fun and show them how the basic concepts of science are relevant to everyday life. The challenge will be communicating what we do on a more basic level."